Gaza surgeon tortured to death; 75 MPs demand Netanyahu sanctions
75 cross-party MPs want Netanyahu sanctioned over Palestinian torture deaths. Six months on, the Foreign Office still won't act.
Dr Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, was arrested by Israeli forces on 5 December 2023. He died in Ofer Prison on 19 April 2024. A fellow prisoner told Sky News he was left dying in the prison yard, naked from the waist down, in agonising pain. A 2025 UN Commission of Inquiry corroborated the account.
He is one of at least 98 Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, according to reports gathered by human rights monitors. At least 70 people are recorded as having entered the Sde Teiman detention facility alive and left dead.
The letter
On 1 July, 75 cross-party MPs, including Labour’s Neil Duncan-Jordan, Jeremy Corbyn, Paula Barker, Liberal Democrat Manuela Perteghella and Conservative Desmond Swayne, wrote to Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanding targeted sanctions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin. The letter states: “Responsibility for the systematic and well-documented torture of Palestinian civilians lies with the government of Israel, including Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
It cites the case of a Palestinian detainee allegedly raped by soldiers at Sde Teiman. Israel dropped the charges against the five soldiers involved on 12 March, citing the soldiers’ own right to a fair trial. The detainee remains unnamed.
Six months of no
A formal request for UK sanctions on Netanyahu was already sitting with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, filed in January by law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn for the Arab Organisation for Human Rights UK, the first such request against a sitting Israeli leader under Britain’s own human rights sanctions regime. The FCDO’s standing answer, repeated in a formal reply to a parliamentary petition, is that it “would not be appropriate to speculate about future sanctions designations.” Approached again over the 1 July letter, the department offered no comment.
The Foreign Office has found room to act elsewhere. On 9 June it joined Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and Norway in sanctioning six networks and one individual financing settler violence in the West Bank. Campaigners called it hollow. Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative said it looked more like managing public anger than a shift in policy. Amnesty UK’s Kristyan Benedict said targeting financiers while sparing ministers “leaves the architects untouched.” Christian Aid’s Jennifer Larbie called it derisory.
Where the law already stands
Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant already carry International Criminal Court arrest warrants, issued in November 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The court’s Appeals Chamber upheld them 3-2 and rejected Israel’s further appeal.
Six months after the first British request landed on its desk, the Foreign Office has sanctioned settler financiers, two far-right ministers, and no one above them. Adnan al-Bursh is still dead.
